1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally concerns a video recording and reproducing apparatus and a method to control a video and reproducing apparatus. More concretely, the present invention concerns a video recording apparatus capable of storing a recording pattern of a user and a method to control a video recording apparatus capable of storing a recording pattern of a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional video recording and/or reproducing apparatuses, the video recording and reproducing apparatus records a broadcast signal onto a recording medium and/or reproduces the recorded broadcast signal. Such a video recording and reproducing apparatus has more expanded operations with the development of digitization and compression of the broadcast signal. Furthermore, video recording and reproducing apparatuses to support various video sources such as satellite broadcasts, cable broadcasts, and network broadcasts through the Internet, and to enter upon a phase of recording data, such as a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM) title or a digital versatile disc (DVD) title, on an optical medium, or, a phase of reproducing the recorded data from the recording medium are being developed with advances of the digitization and the data compression technologies.
The optical recording medium, for example, the DVD storing video and audio data, generally may store hundreds of megabytes to tens of gigabytes. Hence, the optical recording medium conventionally adopts a hard disc drive (HDD) of a large storage capacity so as to facilely record or read massive data. A representative of the video recording and reproducing apparatus is a DVD/HDD video recording and reproducing apparatus. The DVD/HDD video recording and reproducing apparatus is constructed by combining a DVD-ROM which reproduces data recorded on a disc and an HDD which records and reproduces data within a single casing. The DVD-ROM and the HDD independently operate and respectively have an interface to transfer and receive data with each other. The DVD-ROM generally reproduces data recorded on the optical recording medium such as DVD, audio CD, video CD, and MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) CD.
The DVD/HDD recording and reproducing apparatus may receive the broadcast signal from the outside, and record the received data on the HDD or transmit the received data to the outside, and may record on the HDD the data reproduced from the DVD-ROM. When recording on the HDD the reproduced data of the DVD-ROM or the external signal, the user may store a plurality of programs on the HDD having a large storage capacity.
Hereinbelow, the DVD/HDD video recording and reproducing apparatus is described in greater detail with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic block diagram of a DVD/HDD combo system combining a DVD player and a HDD. As shown, a DVD reproducing device FIG. includes a switch 10, a MPEG encoding part 20, a HDD 30, a flash ROM 40, a controller 50, a random access memory (RAM) 60, a signal receiver 70, a digital signal processor 80, a display 85, and a DVD player 90.
The switch 10 receives diverse video and audio data sources and particular channels from the outside, and/or, outputs the video data source output from the digital signal processor 80 to the external display 85. The switch 10 receives a broadcast signal and an external signal, such as a component signal and a composite signal applied from a video tape recorder (not shown), and selectively feeds the received signals to the operation block of FIG. 1. For example, if the external signal received from an external device such as the video tape is the component or composite signal, the switch 10 transfers the received signal to the MPEG encoding part 20. The switch 10 is constructed to operate in a picture-in-picture (PIP) block 11 according to the PIP mode operation of the controller 50.
The MPEG encoding part 20 includes a video decoder 21, an audio analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 22, and a MPEG encoder 23. The MPEG encoding part 20 converts analog data of the video data source received from the switch 10 to digital data, and compresses the converted data using MPEG standards (for example, MPEG-2). In general, the compression of the MPEG video data reduces data size for storing on the storage medium such as the HDD 30.
The HDD 30 is constructed to store or read the MPEG video data and audio data on or from data storage space as a file format.
The flash ROM 40 contains operating system (OS) and applications to manage the DVD reproducing device. The flash ROM 40 also contains applications to display onto the display 85 through a Graphic User Interface (GUI) a menu of the video and audio data stored on the HDD 30 as the file format and additional information related to the stored data, such as timer-recording, icon, title, record time, and file size. Additionally, the flash ROM 40 contains applications to edit and display the video and audio data stored on the HDD 30 through the displayed menu. Especially, the GUI of the menu screen is provided, as shown in FIG. 2, to display the timer-recording screen and to assist in timer-recording a particular broadcast program. It is assumed that the flash ROM 40 described in this description designates a rewritable memory as compared with a general ROM.
The controller 50 stores on the HDD 30 the MPEG data output from the MPEG encoding part 20, or, transfers the data to the digital signal processor 80 so as to read the video and audio data stored on the HDD 30. When reproducing the DVD, the controller 50 reads information on the DVD title from information of a disc information file area and stores the read information in a route directory area of the HDD 30. The controller 50 reads and displays the related GUI screen from the flash ROM 40 so as to display an icon and a title corresponding to the video data stored as the file format on the HDD 30 by executing the applications contained in the flash ROM 40. If the user wants to set the timer-recording with respect to a particular broadcast program, the controller 50 displays the timer-recording menu stored on the flash ROM 40, records the particular broadcast program on the HDD 30 when the timer-recording start time arrives, and performs the PIP function depending on the PIP mode input from the signal receiver 70.
When the controller 50 edits the file stored on the HDD 30, the RAM 60 loads the file to be edited. Specifically, the file stored on the HDD 30 is not directly editable, instead, the file is editable in the RAM 60 and the edited file is re-stored on the HDD 30.
The signal receiver 70 receives and transfers to the controller 50 a control signal (not shown), which is generated from a remote controller (not shown) or a manipulation key (not shown) provided on the conventional recording and reproducing apparatus. The remote controller or the manipulation key controls the video recording and reproducing apparatus, for example, to select a desired channel, to change volume, to adjust image quality, and to select the PIP mode.
The digital signal processor 80 receives the MPEG video data stored on the HDD 30 via the controller 50, and decodes and converts the received video data to a video format such as National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) or Phase Alteration Line (PAL). The converted signal is to be displayed on a display such as a television.
The DVD player 90 reads the video and audio data from the DVD and transfers the read data to the controller 50. The video and audio data transferred to the controller 50 is stored on the HDD 30 or is fed to the digital signal processor 80 of the display.
With the conventional video recording and reproducing apparatus constructed as above, the user may perform the timer-recording. Referring to FIG. 2, the controller 50 displays the data stored in the flash ROM 40 and the additional information input by the user for the timer-recording such as a record time and a channel to be recorded on the screen using the menu in the GUI form. The information relating to the timer-recording generally includes a broadcast channel to be recorded, a record date, a record start time, and a record stop time. Such timer-recording information is stored in the flash ROM 40. When the record start time arrives, the switch 10 receives the set broadcast channel, the MPEG encoding part 20 performs the signal processing, and the processed data is recorded on the HDD 30. While the timer-recording information is directly input on the screen, data such as a program guide may be employed to automatically receive and store the timer-recording information.
However, the timer-recording function of the above conventional video recording and reproducing apparatus, which receives the timer-recording information from the user or automatically receives and stores the timer-recording information, cannot execute the timer-recording operation unless the timer-recording information is provided. Further, a one touch recorder (OTR) operation, which records a current channel being viewed by the user, cannot be executed when the user views any other program on a different channel and the record start time passes by.
Accordingly, providing a new operation to automatically inquire of the user whether to record a program which is periodically recorded with a certain pattern at a record start time even when the program is not pre-set by the user for the timer-recording is necessary.